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Here are some samples of historic coins of the world.
The first gold coins struck by King Kroesus, those of Alexander the Great,
Phillip II, Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, Brutus, Augustus Caesar, Emeperor
Constantine, her monther Helena, and Japanese, Chinese and Byzantine coins.
Source: British Museum.
The silver denarius of Julius Caesar may have been the
coin Jesus received during one of his last temple talks in Jerusalem. |
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These are the coins used during the times of Jesus.
The silver denarius was the most common coin then, and was worth one day's
wage for common laborers and soldiers.
(Matthew 22:17-21 NKJV)
17 "Tell us, therefore, what do You think? Is it
lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?" 18 But Jesus perceived their
wickedness, and said, "Why do you test Me, [you] hypocrites? 19 "Show
Me the tax money." So they brought Him a denarius. 20 And
He said to them, "Whose image and inscription [is] this?" 21
They said to Him, "Caesar's." And He said to them, "Render
therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things
that are God's."
Matthew 20:1-2 RSV
"For the kingdom of heaven is like a householder
who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After
agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent
them into his vineyard." |
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When Maximian asked him to resume the reins of the Roman
empire, "he rejected the temptation with a smile of pity, calmly
observing that, if he could show Maximian the cabbages which he had planted
with his own hands at Salona, he should no longer be urged to relinquish
the enjoyment of happiness for the pursuit of power." (Gibbon, The
Decline and the Fall of the Roman Empire, Chapter XIII, 1960). |